Sunday, July 22, 2012

Strange Hands 'Dead Flowers'

Since their inception in 2008 French three piece Strange Hands have been honing their sound and now offer up debut album 'Dead Flowers' on Shit Music For Shit People. Originally from Bordeaux the group are made up of Lucas (Le Pecheur), Melvyn and Victor, who together utilize twelve string guitars, organs and drums to assemble their bursts garage-pop-freakouts. Vivid saccharine melodies thread through the twelve songs on the album which pays homage to 60's psychedelia whilst giving it a modern twist. 'Dead Flowers' plays out radiant keys, runaway rhythms and joyfully charged guitars that drift in and out of swampy distortion all recorded with a high-fidelity approach. This is wonderfully captured in "Smell", a raucous number delivered by primal chugging guitars, amphetamine beats and a heady-rush of fuzz. Mesmerizing 'Anxious Pictures' is another personal favourite chiming out swaggering guitars, jangly rhythms and fevered vocals. 'Dead Flowers' has been a perfect antidote to an otherwise bleak summer we've experienced in London this year - a great debut by 60's psych-pop lovers, for 60's psych-pop lovers.